Month: May 2012

By CountingPips.com

The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators increased their overall US dollar long positions last week for the second consecutive week as speculators added to their euro short positions to the highest level on record.

Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar long positions to $28.52 billion on May 15th from a total long position of $20.95 billion on May 8th, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

Individual Currencies:

EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment plummeted for the euro currency last week as euro net short positions or bets against the currency increased to 173,869 contracts on May 15th from the previous week’s total of 106,990 net short contracts on May 8th. This is the highest level for euro short positions on record surpassing the January 23rd level when short contracts totaled 171,347.

The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity. Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, where as a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar. The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.

GBP: British pound sterling positions dipped slightly last week after rising for a four consecutive weeks and ascending to their highest level in over a year. British pound positions saw a total of 25,021 net long contracts on May 15th following a total of 25,339 net long contracts registered on May 8th. Before last week’s pullback, Pound positions were at the highest level since May 3rd 2011 when long contracts equaled 30,807.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week for a fifth consecutive week as Yen positions totaled 34,315 net short contracts reported on May 15th following a total of 41,093 net short contracts on May 8th. The improvement in the Japanese positions has coincided with the US Dollar falling against the yen in the spot price forex market as the pair currently trades under the 80.00 level.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions decreased sharply last week and fell for the second straight week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 26,694 net short contracts on May 15th following a total of 16,494 net short contracts as of May 8th.

CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined last week for a second straight week after reaching the highest level of the year on May 1st. Canadian dollar positions fell to a total of 51,005 net long contracts as of May 15th following a total of 60,095 long contracts that were reported for May 8th. CAD positions had recently surpassed their previous highest level of the year and reached their best level since March of 2011 on May 1st at positive 70,223 contracts.

AUD: The Australian dollar long positions dropped sharply for a second consecutive week. Aussie positions declined to a total net amount of 4,734 long contracts on May 15th after falling to 25,104 net long contracts as of May 8th. AUD speculative positions are now at the lowest level since at least 2009 and surpassed the previous low level of the last 12 months that was a total of 5,167 contracts on September 26th of 2011.

NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined for a fourth straight week as NZD contracts decreased to a total of 2,597 net long contracts as of May 15th following a total of 6,224 net long contracts on May 8th. This is the lowest level for New Zealand Kiwi contracts since January 2nd 2012.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts continued lower after edging down the previous week. Peso long positions decreased to a total of 14,445 net long speculative positions as of May 15th following a total of 36,928 long contracts that were reported for May 8th.

COT Currency Data Summary as of May 15, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar

EUR -173869
GBP +25021
JPY -34315
CHF -26694
CAD +51005
AUD +4734
NZD +2597
MXN +14445

This is what’s in the news for Friday May 18, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports bad debts held by Spanish banks jumped to a 17-year high in March, according to the country’s central bank, as 8.37% of the loans held by banks, or EUR147.97B, were over three months overdue for repayment in March. Reuters reports market turmoil over the euro zone crisis could last another 12-24 months, says German Finance Minister Schaeuble, adding that it was up to the Greeks to decide if they wanted to stay in the single currency. Bloomberg reports the U.S. yesterday imposed tariffs of as much as 250% on Chinese-made solar cells to aid domestic manufacturers, but critics say the decision may end up raising prices and hurting the U.S. renewable energy industry. Finally Bloomberg also reports Chinese auto dealerships, including Honda (HMC), Chery, BYD and Geely, are struggling with the rising number of unsold cars that’s threatening to deepen price cuts, according to the state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association

Hewlett-Packard is planning on making some big changes to its personnel. According to the New York Times, HP’s CEO Meg Whitman announced the company will be cutting 30,000 or more jobs next week. The move is in an effort to save money and spend it on increasing the efficiency of the company’s sales force. HP will also use the left over cash to start creating new products.The job cuts will happen globally across the company. Most likely, the job cuts will not cause HP to abandon any of its businesses. Ms. Whitman’s plan is another addition to the initiatives she has started since taking over the company after Leo Apohteker. Already she has raised the company’s stock dividend and announced a corporate reorganization intended to consolidate operational efficiency.It still remains to be seen whether these job cuts are the thing to get HP back on track.

El Paso Pipeline (NYSE:EP) announced it would acquire the remaining 14% interest in Colorado Interstate Gas and all of Cheyenne Plains Investment, which owns Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline from El Paso Corp for $635 million and assume about $242 million in debt. El Paso Corporation operates natural gas pipeline and storage facilities, transports natural gas, and imports liquefied natural gas. El Paso also explores for and produces natural gas. The Company has operations in the United States, Brazil, and Egypt. SmarTrend is bullish on shares of El Paso and our subscribers were alerted to buy on October 10, 2011 at $18.98. The stock has risen 51.6% since the alert was issued.

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Happy Friday and the listing day of Facebook. Mark and Sheryl rang the bell at NASDAQ and it was a very emotional moment because their story represents the essence of American Dream. On the trading side, the company was set to print its first trade at 11am, but it was delayed for 30 minutes. We don’t have an exact explanation for the delay, but sources said it’s because some traders had reservation about the stock and were revising orders last minute. It opened at $42.05, but did not pop the chart. Thanks to its underwriters’ buying efforts, the stock did not fall below the $38 IPO price even though it was dangerously close. Facebook is a household name and many young investors want to own it just for sentimental reasons. For those of you in this camp, I would still say go do some homework. Facebook closed at $38.43 on its first day of trading, up 1.1%. Its options will begin trading on May 29, which could mean the stock will not be as volatile until then. Personally I want to say congratulations to all the Facebook staff. This is something that can only happen in America and the staff of my network are very proud of you. Thanks for watching. I’m Julia Sun for the Financial News Network. See you next week.

This twentieth trading week of 2012 comes to a close with investors assessing the deteriorating situation in Greece and closely monitoring the IPO of Facebook (FB). Hi.

Canadian Pacific (CP) was upgraded today by Citigroup (C) from neutral to buy with a price target of $90, as the end of the proxy battle should mark a turnaround at the company. Shares are lower by about 2.4 percent.

In trading on Friday, precious metals shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 3.1%. Leading the group were shares of Golden Minerals (AUMN), up about 14.4% and shares of Lake Shore Gold (LSG) up about 9% on the day.

Foot Locker (FL) announced that it earned $128 million, or 83 cents per share, up from $94 million, or 60 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue increased by 8.7 percent to $1.58 billion from $1.45 billion.